Panikku Channeru & PANIC*ch present: Meguro Meguru RockMaykan 5 Days
2004 December 17th

Bands in order: PANIC*ch, Wish in the Darkness, Panikku Channeru

I finally had some company for this string of lives. And not just any company... three people! Ren, Callie, and Bruce. It was Callie and Bruce's first Panic show. Somehow miraculously all of us foreign people managed to meet at the same time. I didn't think it was going to be possible, but Ren and Callie skipped their classes and we all met at Meguro station simultaneously. The ticket yoyaku guy shouldn't have even bothered asking me my name, as he asked "four people?" without looking at the list, as my reservations were for three, but he didn't seem to have any problem with adding a fourth even though Bruce had made his own reservation (which had been lost, apparently.)

This was considered a oneman, yet they were having a "center act" play. The band is apparently one of Panic's roadies, they were also the band that recognized my Meguru cosplay in Harajuku a few weekends back and told me I was cool. Callie was going mainly to see them. We thought they would be first, considering most (okay, all) opening acts do just that... open.

Some girl, upon my entry, ran up to me and was like "OMG you're the Meguru cosplayer you're so cool! YOROSHIKU ONEGAISHIMASU" and ran away, and I was like "huh?" because I'd never seen her before, but that was cute. We sat in the back by the trashcans and wrote cards (we were present fairies, bringing Kana and Tara birthday presents, and I had a present for Meguru for no reason) and wrote on each other... Ren was wearing a low cut shirt (it was decent, just low cut) so I wrote Tara on her chest as a joke, and she wrote Meguru on mine but you couldn't see it very well. The Tsubasa cosplayer we see on the bridge (who I'd never seen at an actual Panic show before) came over and said hi, she's so nice!

Then I realized the TROUBLE. I have always complained about MayKan's size and poor planning with seats. As it is, there is really only enough room in the front for about 30 people to stand... Everyone else has to stand in the aisles or the seats or in the back where the sound is godawful. It is only good when there is a small crowd, tolerable when it's a larger one. So whatever DUMBASS was in charge tonight decided it would be a good idea to put a CATWALK in the area where people stand should be kicked in the junk. THERE WAS NO ROOM UP FRONT! Ahhughuhhghh. It was just a big giant box in the way. We started pushing our way down the left aisle when they started playing the 829 euro mix. Apparently the other band wasn't first, which made tons of sense. And they started on time, wow!!!!

We managed to get to the front; there was room for about 3 people on either side of the catwalk, so I stood behind another girl on Tsubasa's side. I was really pissed as I couldn't stand in the middle because of the catwalk, the three front-line girls somehow got their territory marked and stood in the front row of seats so they were the only ones who got to stand in the middle.

As usual, PANIC*ch played first. Takumi came out first in a boyish outfit with flannel, and a really horrid neon yellow trucker hat with PANIC*ch written on it. Tara was wearing a really bad camouflage leaf-print long skirt with several pairs of Vivienne socks. Kana and Tsubasa had the usual layers. Meguru was wearing a light blue Capsule Corps tshirt, with white Super Lovers track jacket. How can they manage to wear such tacky things and still look adorable?

If possible, they were more energetic than the previous nights. Tara saw his name on Ren's chest and thought it was pretty funny. During the first song (Sparking), when everyone does the peace signs, Bruce (who was also standing near the front with us), was not doing the peace signs. However, Bruce is apparently a giant white beacon, and Meguru saw him and started talking to him from stage. Holy crap. He was laughing because he can't speak English and was like, "Are you from... U... S.. A?" and then told him to do the peace signs like everyone else. Oh my god.

They played pretty much every *ch song except Lovely. During the MC there was teasing of Kana for his hair sticking up with static, and for the other members to speak, as they were all being shy. Tsubasa decided to take a stand, and continue his underwear story of two days prior. Today he was not wearing YG underwear, but new ones that said "New boys", at least he thought so, they actually said "News body", and we were cracking up because of it. Tsubasa was spreading the love. I got a different perspective being on his side instead of the middle. He hung out on the amp a lot, smiling and showing off. Tara also stepped on the amp a lot. He smiled at me once, oooh.

So that was lots of fun, and Meguru mentioned that one of their roadies was in the center act and they would be playing while they changed costumes and makeup. Ohh they're so smart! It takes them FOREVER during onemans to change sets. This was apparently their fifth oneman ever, the second they've played at MayKan. Let's not make a habit of onemans at MayKan, mmkay? He also mentioned that the hat Takumi was wearing was a gift from some fans; they each apparently got one in a different color.

They ended with One's life. We went to the back of MayKan to drink something and for Ren to add Tsubasa's name to her chest.

So Wish in the Darkness came out. They were rather lively, in weird traditional style costumes. The vocalist had a long white kimono-type thing on; guitarist had a black silk one, etc. The vocalist, their roadie, had a fan which he waved around spastically while the fan(girl)s did the same. He stomped all over Meguru's box though, to the point where he actually bent it! Jerk (just kidding, I love Dachi). I'm not too sure I liked them, they were trying really hard but Dachi couldn't sing at all. And one guitarist was just wearing a giant black cloak that was 5 sizes too big for him with his hair sticking up in one dorky ponytail at the top of his head. Did they run out of a costume budget before they got to him or something?

They had an amusing MC where the bassist admitted he was spending Christmas with the other guitarist (which in Japan has all sorts of connotations). I kind of vegged out for most of their set; went out in the hallway with Bruce for him to smoke, so I don't have much else to say about them. They're nice guys but still have a way to go. Which is apparently nowhere, because they announced their disbanding a week later.

Then Panikku made their debut with new costumes which I must say are the best costumes EVER. I want to know who designs their costumes so I can be their apprentice or something. They're just such awesome designs!! Takumi had a long dress on, with a bustle-type gathering in the back, the top was like a tanktop with buckles and grommets and stuff. Tara was wearing very little: tiny tiny shorts and legwarmers, with a long coat that had wa-style fabric in inverted pleats down the arms that laced up, and a tiny tube top. It was full view of Tara crotch as he walked on stage (I think he stuffs his shorts). He also had a little ponytail of yarn and plastic hair which was rather cute.

Tsubasa had a long sleeveless coat that was half snakeskin half vinyl, with lacing up parts. Kana's was just lots of awesome ripped stuff, a top and skirt, with ridiculously long waist-length hair extensions... He also had tiny little shorts on under the rippy skirt-type thing and when he put his leg up on the amp by us (AHEM) we could see he had one grommet in the middle of his crotch. I don't think Kana's ever been one for thigh and crotch showing... so this was an interesting change. I'm not too sure how I feel about that though. He's got a jiggly thigh thing going on. Their manager needs to get him on an exercise bike. Heh heh sorry.

But Meguru's.........WOW! It was in the same style as his previous costumes (another reason why I LOVE their designer, because they have continuity!! All their costumes "look" like them, and they all go together so they look like a band. This set's theme was black/grey/white... only Tara was a little colorful.), with a morning coat and pants. However it was the most crazyass suit ever, made out of tweed, black shimmery stuff, black fabric with white spiderwebs over... all of which could have looked absolutely atrocious together but it was designed in the most patchwork deconstructed way that it looked SO AWESOME. And he had little batwings of course. And.... possibly the most giant ridiculous long-haired furry hat that any bandman has ever worn. It was so big you couldn't see his face, but he managed to look GOOD! He even had long extensions under it that looked real.

So that was an awesome surprise!! Even if they had a horrible set, I would have been happy just staring at the costumes the whole time. But they didn't have a horrible set, they were fantastic! They played Setsuna first (YAYAYAYAYAY) and pretty much every other one of their songs. Their big news was they're going to be recording for AN ALBUM!! And they're going to be having another oneman in March. After one song, everyone but Kana left the stage. A background track started up, and Kana let loose a ripping guitar solo. He got us all to stage rush, and he was screaming, and he went from one side of the stage to the other. It was quite impressive. Of course he had to have us shout his name for him to continue, the usual. Once he was done, he ran off and everyone else came back on. Meguru had us give him a round of applause for being so cool.

During Kodoku mousou, Meguru gave the usual instructions for each loop. Stage rush, stage rush, jump up, go in a circle... However a lot of the fans were having a rather difficult time following him. I found it really amusing that I could understand him better than the Japanese girls. At some points I thought I was doing the wrong thing, but no... I guess the girls around me had just not gone to enough Panic shows, and started glancing at me to check themselves! Very bizarre. But still the most fun. I especially liked his throwing in of "duck down!" and we all squatted. Usually it's a duck down to get a springing leap in the air but no, this was just going down. Silly.

Strangely enough, they really didn't use the catwalk. This makes me wonder why it was there to begin with. They probably were just not used to having one, and only rarely went out on it. The best was probably at the end, when Meguru walked onto it and we all stage rushed... it made for an interesting scene as everyone folded over various parts of protruding stage. Meguru still managed to pet me during both sets, even though I wasn't standing in the middle. I still love you Meguru! ;_; After another song, they left stage for an encore. They returned rather quickly, however they all replaced the top halves of their costumes with matching tshirts. I didn't recognize the brand, but they were all black shirts with red screen printing of a traditional looking design (think carp and stuff). Meguru's was a different design but same theme, they were really nice looking. So they played Iyagarase and the new untitled song, and ended on a great note.

However, I was really upset when it was over because the new photosets, which went on sale THAT DAY had SOLD OUT! They must have made like 10 of them or something. How can you sell out of new photosets!? They still have ones of their costumes from 8/29!! I wanted a set SO BAD! We filled out enquettes (Bruce wrote "Yes I am from America" to Meguru and other bizarre things "Merry xmas I love you") and then headed out. Apparently they were giving out gift bags to everyone who had gone to all five days. Damnit.

I'm really surprised; despite MayKan (and the fans) sucking, this was one of their best lives I've seen. There were no staging troubles, no poorly planned songs, no natural disasters... it was just AWESOME!